Maxim Leyzerovich

With no affiliation, sharing this as I know it will be good. Peter Merholz's ideas have been instrumental in my shaping of design teams. As iF Design point out here - the right environment around the design team is key to producing a successful team. The role of the leader is to create that environment.

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How to make your Design System readable for AI? Jesse Gardner, Director, User Research at New York State is joining the Into Design Systems AI Conference 2026! Jesse oversees the New York State Design System and Accessibility teams supporting 45+ agencies and 20 million residents The problem: AI doesn't know what's right. It only knows what's likely. For critical government services that's not good enough! Jesse shows how to turn design decisions into machine-readable infrastructure that AI can actually use. Real examples from New York State: - Using Figma, Code Connect and MCP servers as guidance layers - Making AI speed work with accessibility standards Join us and learn hands-on with Jesse Gardner 📐 Into Design Systems, AI Conference 🗓️ March 19-20 2026, Online ✅ Recordings, files, certificate included 👉 Limited tickets: https://lnkd.in/gnCF4zCx See you there! 🙌 #designsystems #ai #vibecoding

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GV (Google Ventures) have a long history of hiring former designers and design leaders to support their portfolio companies. Folks like Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky, Kate Aronowitz, Daniel Burka, Braden Kowitz, Vanessa Cho, and Tom Hulme. In my latests podcast interview, Kate Aronowitz explains why this is, and what designers bring to the table. Interestingly it's not about craft, but rather the way they see the world with a beginners mind.

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I frequently reread this great primer on Ontology from Jessica Talisman. Librarians and Info Architects bring critical expertise to any team working with AI. Design choices shape context and communication between people, and this will be exponentially true with AI agents. #design #enterpriseAI #AIstrategy #AIagents #knowledgemanagement

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The future of design isn't prettier pixels—it's intelligence architecture. Suff Syed's latest piece challenges everything we know: designers must move from the surface to the substrate—from interfaces to the intelligence layer beneath. We've spent careers perfecting visual design, following leaders like Jony Ive. However, in the Era of Intelligence, we need to look toward different leaders—such as Demis Hassabis—who design systems that think, not just look beautiful. Here's the shift: The skills that got us here are no longer sufficient. As AI becomes the new operating system, designers who understand agentic AI, proactive systems, and personal intelligence will shape the next decade. Why now: 96% of designers are self-teaching AI skills. Startups are adopting AI at twice the rate of enterprises. The window to become an outlier is closing. This isn't about AI replacing designers—it's about designers who understand AI replacing those who don't. My challenge: Stop treating AI as just another tool. Start learning how these systems work intimately. Move from decorating surfaces to architecting intelligence. Read Suff's full article: https://lnkd.in/dtfG4dGn Will you be designing with AI or watching from the sidelines? #Design #AI #UXDesign #ProductDesign #DesignLeadership

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Leadership isn’t about control, it’s about care. In a great essay for MassArt Design Innovation, Peilan Liang writes: “We need your presence, not just your plans.” Her piece is a gentle call for a new model of design leadership, one grounded in listening, co-creation, and trust. For anyone starting out and navigating complex, fast-moving teams, this one’s worth reading. https://lnkd.in/eKMMHnPh #DesignLeadership #MassArtMDES #PsychologicalSafety #LeadWithCare #HumanFirstLeadershi

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This is what investing in AI in design looks like. As with many other job families, the design industry focuses on what might the impact of AI be: will it lower the quality with slop? Will it replace humans? Etc But I don't see much focus on to understand and really capitalise on the potential AI brings to design. We are largely treating it as any other tool: a way to get incrementally better. At best it's a short course for the designers, at worst it's expecting designers to already know how to use it. But AI has the potential for making radical shifts and leaps. I'd love to hear, and learn, from anyone who is making significant strides to drive AI transformation in design.

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Last month, I had a conversation with the World Design Organization on navigating the deep entanglements of systems—and how this perspective shapes the way we design solutions, startups, and impact. We unpacked the constant dance between the macro & micro, drawing from real stories at Studio Carbon, Daily Dump, IDEO and Quicksand—where we put systems thinking into grounded real-world innovations. If you're reimagining how we innovate for the world’s real needs—without treating unintended consequences as an afterthought—this one's for you. #SystemsThinking #DesignForImpact #SocialInnovation #ComplexityInDesign #IntentionalInnovation #WIP

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If your personas describe users in isolation, you’re limiting impact. Real work is collaborative, constrained, and increasingly shaped by automated systems. Our design artifacts need to reflect that reality. This piece explores what it means to expand personas beyond the single user, and why relationships between actors matter just as much as the actors themselves. https://lnkd.in/g4dxrrHx #designexcellence #designleadership #userpersona #AIintegration

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